The TV rights deal for WWE programming was up for bidding and there was excitement for where this brand would land. SmackDown has been the A show for the last 5 years and Fox was a great home for WWE and they allowed WWE to be on network TV. SmackDown had Roman Reigns for the entire duration because Fox wanted him as their biggest star. Since the announcement of TKO which is a company merging UFC and WWE these rights were being looked into more
It has finally been decided that USA Network will get the rights to SmackDown and they will have to pay a whopping $1.4 Billion for the next 5 years and that will start from October 2024. Let’s talk about this deal
WWE SmackDown back to its original home
WWE SmackDown was on Fox from October 2019 at Fox and that has been a very successful partnership for WWE as they have been on Network TV for 5 years. The biggest WWE superstars have been on SmackDown these 5 years and the likes of The Bloodline have dominated the majority of these TV rights deal because their story has been going on for more than 3 years. Roman Reigns has increased the brand value of SmackDown. Fox paid $1 billion for 5 years meaning $200 million per year. WWE obviously wanted a substantial increase and USA Network provided that as they were willing to pay $400 million extra.
USA Network will have to pay $280 million per year to WWE for the TV rights to SmackDown. This is a 40% increase which is great for WWE because the WWE product is hot right now and USA Network realised that and they went the extra mile to get these . As a result most likely they will have to let go of their rights to WWE Raw and NXT whose rights will be decided next and till September 2024 both these brands will air on the USA Network. Fox gave WWE a slot in their prime network and that allowed WWE to have more than 2.2 million viewers weekly which will most likely not be the case with USA Network.
WWE is one of the hottest products on the market as first they were valued at $9.3 billion by Endeavor. Then this rights deal to her SmackDown at the USA Network for $1.4 billion. Then another $2+ billion for the rights of Raw and NXT. WWE is printing Money hand over fist. The sad news on this day was that WWE also announced a slew of releases on the same day and that was considered as inconsiderate by some top WWE superstars. WWE will again earn more than $1 billion for the fourth year in a row. UFC has its rights deal coming up as we in a few years and they will also see increase and both WWE and UFC will earn TKO multiple billions of dollars
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